


Anger

by UglyJackal



Series: Final Fantasy Shenanigans [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Miqo'te Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 13:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16018706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UglyJackal/pseuds/UglyJackal
Summary: Jack wasn't the sort to get worked up over things.





	Anger

Jack wasn’t the sort to get worked up over things. He would especially not be one to get angry over things. He was not hot-headed, nor was he short-tempered. He had the patience of a saint - so most of his friends said, and really you had to have the patience of a saint to put up with the shenanigans that those idiots got up to - and if he was to become frustrated, he was always able to calm himself down quietly. But often, a preset image does not always last forever. Especially in the line of work he had gotten himself caught up in.

With the final crushing blow made by Zelda, Titan lost his footing and fell to the floor like a tree falling, bellowing out a guttural roar. Once his body lay still on the ground, Jack took the moment to stand up, panting. He had spent a large majority of the fight just leaping out of the way of Titan’s attacks that would have pushed him off the side of the platform, and his old bones couldn’t take the hassle. He looked over at Izabella, who was a similar age to him. He barked out a laugh and shouted over to her, ‘Lucky you’re a healer, huh? You only have to be in one place at a time.’

‘Shut the fuck up, I had to dodge just as many attacks as you,’ the healer snapped, crossing her arms, ‘ _ and _ you’d be dead without me, so watch your mouth.’

Jack snorted. ‘Yeah, I appreciate you, blah blah, let’s get out of here before someone falls off the edge.’

Zelda rolled her eyes. ‘Come on, you two, stop bickering, you both did a good job,’ she said, ‘let’s get back to the Scions.’

So that’s what they did. They used the aetheryte to get to Horizon, and hopped up onto their chocobos to race off to the Waking Sands. As soon as they entered the building, it did not take a look at Tataru’s overturned chair to send a lurch of fear plummet through each of their stomachs. Jack bolted down the stairs and through the door, racing towards the door to Minfilia’s office. 

He didn’t make it to the door.

He stood there, tears welling in his eyes, as he saw the collapsed corpses of the guards face-first on the ground. He shoved the doors open, vision blurred by tears, and saw so many of his comrades on the ground, either dying or dead. He had the prickling feeling of his friends standing at the door behind him, but he didn’t care. They were dead. All of them. The organisation to which he had come to love like family… gone.

‘Ja… ck…’ a voice croaked out his name. The Miqo’te looked down, his ears flattening as he saw the Sylph, Noraxia, laying on the ground, her breath short and laboured. Before he could manage to get his hopes up, Jack already knew she was not long for this world. He knelt down and cupped her head in his hands.

‘What… what happened?’ he asked, stomach broiling with the feeling that he was going to be violently sick.

Noraxia explained what had happened; how a woman in white armour had barged into the room, having killed the guards outside, upon which Minfilia surrendered herself in return for the lives of the innocent to be spared, the white-armoured woman had demanded for the one who had killed Ifrit and Titan, and Minfilia had said he was not there. She was handcuffed, and when the woman had been about to attack Minfilia, Noraxia had stood in the way, but had been cast aside like nothing more than a fly. As the lives of the innocent were destroyed, Urianger, Papalymo, Tataru and Minfilia were marched away.

As she finished the story, her breath was becoming weaker and weaker. Jack cradled her in his arms, holding her close to his chest, holding her until her breaths fizzled out.

His friends had gathered round, each of them crying for their lost friends. Astrid put her hand on Jack’s shoulder, but he flinched away from her, a look of steely reserve in his eyes, no tears had spilled from his eyes. He lay Noraxia back on the ground and stood. He turned and walked away. He grabbed his thaumaturge staff from his belt and gripped it hard as it crackled with a magical energy.

Zelda, Izabella and Astrid all looked at each other in concern and followed him.

He was running. Not on his chocobo, but on his own feet. He had never been the quickest of the group, but today he found a speed deep from his very being. He did not know where he was going, nor did he care where for that matter. He just kept going until his stamina forced him to stop. His friends were all galloping behind on their chocobos.

Eventually, Jack stopped in Western Thanalan, and was immediately faced with a horde of cactuars. With an angry scream, he lunged forward and attacked. Casting spell after spell after spell. Not powerful enough to kill the cactuars in one hit, and receiving several scrapes and tears in his clothing from the thorns on their green arms. He didn’t care. Clothing could be replaced. His friends could not.

He went on to kill clouds of insects; jackals; giant tortoises; piestes, and anything he could get his hands on. His friends followed behind, their shouts to him to stop not reaching his ears.

Jack, for probably the first time, had lost himself to pure anger. The violent mists of red had settled over his eyes and would not let him hear past the furious screams of his victims as they collapsed. He was murdering innocent victims, just like the innocents of the Scions had been brutally killed. At that thought, he stopped and collapsed to his knees. There were still a few piestes nipping at him, but he could not find it in himself to care. There had been too much death today.

Zelda charged up on Argentum and quickly expelled the remaining enemies that were still attacking, their bodies crumpling to the ground like leaves crushed underfoot.

His friends approached cautiously, lest he whirl around and attack them in turn. But he was numb. A dagger could have pierced his stomach and it was doubtful that he would have felt it. His tears had finally spilled, cascading down his face as though someone had destroyed a dam. His resolve had broken with an ugly finality. He folded in on himself, as Zelda wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close to her chest. She hummed quietly, her own voice broken with tears, comforting her grieving friend as though he was her own child afraid of his nightmares.

Izabella and Astrid pushed themselves into the huddle as well. And they all sat on a rock in Thanalan, crying together.

* * *

Months later, Jack approached the guild of conjury, face set with a cold anger.

The woman behind the desk looked up and smiled. ‘Hello, are you here to join the conjurer guild?’ she asked brightly.

Jack nodded without a word.

‘Talk to Brother E’Sumi just down there,’ she said.

And away he went.

He listened listlessly to E’Sumi’s talking, but his ears flicked as the shorter man asked why. ‘Why did you decide to join the conjurers?’

Jack frowned and looked away. ‘Just wanted to be more helpful,’ he said.

E’Sumi seemed happy with his answer and sent him away on his mission, giving him a curved cane of conjury to wield his magic with.

Jack did not mention, however, that since the massacre of the Scions, there had been a constant anxiety in the pit of his stomach that his friends - Zelda, Izabella, Astrid, Jacky, Alessa, and Ronja - might meet the same grisly fate. But if he could learn healing, and be as good at it as Izabella, then maybe, just maybe, he would be able to stop that from happening.

At least… he hoped.


End file.
